Safety First

 

 

BEWARE: DO NOT READ THIS POEM
—Ishmael Reed

tonite, thriller was
about an old woman, so vain she
surrounded herself with
          many mirrors

          it got so bad that finally she
          

          locked herself indoors & her
         

          whole life became the

          mirrors

          one day the villagers broke
          

          into her house, but she was too
          

          swift for them. she disappeared

          into a mirror
          each tenant who bought the house
          after that, lost a loved one to
          the old woman in the mirror:
          first a little girl
          then a young woman
          then the young woman's husband

          the hunger of this poem is legendary
          

          it has taken in many victims
         

          back off from this poem
          

          it has drawn in your feet
          

          back off from this poem
          

          it has drawn in your legs

          back off from this poem
          

          it is a greedy mirror
          

          you are into this poem. from

          the waist down
          nobody can hear you can they?
          this poem has had you up to here
          belch
          this poem aint got no manners
          you cant call out from this poem
          relax now & go with this poem

          move & roll on to this poem
          

          do not resist this poem
          

          this poem has your eyes
          

          this poem has his head
          

          this poem has his arms
          

          this poem has his fingers
          

          this poem has his fingertips

 

          this poem is the reader & the
           

          reader the poem

          statistic: the US bureau of missing persons re-

             ports that in 1968 over 100,000 people
             disappeared leaving no solid clues
             nor trace     only
             a space     in the lives of their friends

_________________

—Medusa

Today from 7-8pm, Sa. Poetry Alliance presents Frank Dixon Graham’s Sunday Salon online at us02web.zoom.us/j/82282378630/ for support and information about your latest writing project.